Fallout 3 Progress Report

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Bethesda shows off character development, combat, and a certain lovable mutt named Dogmeat.

By Jason Ocampo

War, as the intro to Fallout 3 tells us, never changes. And for much of the last year, the information that we had on Fallout 3 itself hadn't changed, as Bethesda Softworks kept a low profile as it worked on what is easily one of the most anticipated games of the year. But now Bethesda is looking to break radio silence, and we jumped at the chance to see the latest progress on this epic single-player role-playing game set in a memorable post-apocalyptic world. So buckle up, and we'll describe what we saw at a demonstration of the game this week.

We learned last year that character creation was tied into your character's birth in Vault 101, but we finally got to see what Bethesda was talking about. You'll literally emerge from your mother's womb and open your eyes to see a doctor and your father (voiced by Liam Neeson) looking down on you. Don't worry: Bethesda doesn't get graphic in this sequence; all you see in blackness before your eyes focus, but you can very clearly hear the doctor and your father discuss your birth. And like with any new baby, one of the first things they say is, "It's a boy/girl!" That's because this is the very first selection that you make when creating a character, and which option you choose will determine the gender pronoun used throughout the game (One fun little bit of trivia is that if you press the A button during this sequence you'll trigger a baby cry).

Heavy metal.

Then good ol' dad decides to bring in the growth projector to predict what you'll look like when you're older. This is when you get to actually choose your character's look, picking from either preset selections or creating a custom look by mixing and matching different attributes. There are plenty of options to choose from, some quite colorful, like the "gunslinger" option for facial hair. When you're done, you'll finally get a look at dad as he comes into the light, and you'll discover that his character is procedurally generated to look similar to whatever you come up with. Then the camera fades out, and the next thing you know it's one year later.

Now you're a toddler, and good ol' dad is proudly watching you stumble around before he drops you in your steel-fenced play pen and heads out to work. (Alas, poor mom didn't survive your childbirth.) This is literally a baby steps kind of moment that introduces you to the basics of walking around the world, as well as interacting with objects, like opening the door to your play pen and climbing up on chairs. However, this is when you'll also pick up your "You're SPECIAL" book, which looks like a children's book complete with rhymes. However, it's much more than that. Like its predecessors, Fallout 3 relies on the SPECIAL role-playing system, which stands for Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. Each page of the book lets you add or subtract points to each attribute; you only have a limited pool to distribute total. So this is where you get to really make some hard decisions about what kind of character you want to play? Do you want to be a bruiser who can carry tons of weapons and armor? Dump more points into strength, but at the price of other attributes. How about being an agile and quick assassin? Then you definitely want to boost your agility score.

A boy and his dog.

It's during your toddler phase where dad also introduces you to a quote that will apparently play an important role in the game (We won't print it here for spoiler reasons, but if you're curious and don't mind a spoiler, it's taken from the Book of Revelation in the Bible. Look for Chapter 21, Verse 6). And, keeping up with the fun, jamming the A button when you're a toddler makes you utter the word "Daddah."

Once this is done, you'll jump ahead in time again, to your 10th birthday party. This is a coming of age of sorts in Vault 101, as the administrator himself gives you your Pip-Boy 3000, a wrist computer that handles everything from inventory system to quest log to character management and more. You'll finally get a chance to talk to people instead of making gurgling noises, and this is your introduction to the conversation system. You'll also get a BB gun for your birthday, which is your first encounter with the combat system in the game, but we'll cover that a bit later.

That was our taste of the character development system, and we didn't get to see what happens when you get older and take the GOAT (Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test), basically an SAT for post-nuclear war survivors. But next up was something that all Fallout fans can get giddy about: Dogmeat.